Tired of Drake? Here Comes J. Cole!

Since the only thing to say about the new, revamped version of Dr. Dre’s Detox single “Under Pressure” is that it’s still not very good, Right-Click opts to focus its attention today on J. Cole. Who? A quick background check: The 25-year-old rapper’s been buzzing for a minute thanks to last year’s stellar mixtape The Warm Up and a Jay-Z co-sign (he’s the only visible artist signed to Jay’s Roc Nation imprint; there are others, technically, but Jay apparently doesn’t have time in between attending wine tastings with Mayor Bloomberg and test-driving new Maybach models to pay them much attention). Now, while there’s no debut album to plug just yet, it looks like the promotional push is revving up: Just last week Cole did an industry showcase type gig at his boss’s 40/40 Club, and yesterday the tricky one-shot video for his single “Who Dat” was released. Around this time last year Drake was a fresh face on the charts, but now he’s (take your pick: nauseatingly/triumphantly) ubiquitous, and it feels like rap fans are maybe looking for a new ascendant emcee to obsess over. Cole happens to share more than a few of Drake’s credentials — a hit mixtape, instant heavy-hitter approval, an unorthodox-for–hip-hop background (Cole attended St. John’s on an academic scholarship). So is he up next?